11 F.

3d 152

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.
Christopher H. DOBBS, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 92-6937.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eleventh Circuit.
Jan. 12, 1994.

L. Drew Redden, Stephen W. Shaw, Birmingham, AL, for defendantappellant.

James Eldon Wilson, U.S. Atty., David L. Allred, Asst. U.S. Atty.,
Montgomery, AL, for plaintiff-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of
Alabama.
Before BLACK, Circuit Judge, JOHNSON and HENDERSON, Senior
Circuit Judges.
BLACK, Circuit Judge:

A jury convicted Appellant Christopher H. Dobbs on thirty-three counts of mail

fraud for his part in an elaborate scheme that defrauded Union Camp
Corporation of $200,000 by falsifying lumber truck delivery weights. Dobbs
was sentenced in 1992 to concurrent terms of thirty months' incarceration on
each count, to be followed by three years' supervised release. In calculating the
sentence under the United States Sentencing Guidelines (Guidelines or USSG),
the district court applied a two-level enhancement, pursuant to USSG Sec.
3C1.1,1 because Dobbs obstructed justice by committing perjury during his
trial testimony. Dobbs asserts on appeal that the obstruction enhancement for
perjury violates his constitutional right to testify on his own behalf and that the
enhancement was erroneously applied in his case because the district court
judge failed to make a separate, independent factual determination of perjury.
We disagree and affirm the sentence in its entirety.2

I.
2

Dobbs asserts that the Sec. 3C1.1 enhancement is unconstitutional when

applied to perjurious trial testimony because it infringes on a defendant's right
to testify and punishes a defendant for denying guilt on the witness stand. In
United States v. Dunnigan, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 1111, 122 L.Ed.2d 445
(1993), a unanimous Supreme Court rejected these assertions. The Court noted
that, while the right to testify on one's own behalf is both implicit in the
Constitution and explicitly granted by statute, that right has never included a
right to commit perjury. Dunnigan, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1117.3 The
Court also noted that the enhancement for obstruction of justice through perjury
does not punish a defendant for testifying, but rather "is part of a sentencing
scheme designed to determine the appropriate type and extent of punishment
after the issue of guilt has been resolved." Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1116. Perjury
by a defendant "is of obvious relevance in this regard, because it reflects on a
defendant's criminal history, on her willingness to accept the commands of the
law and the authority of the court, and on her character in general." Id. Thus,
Dobbs' constitutional objections to the Sec. 3C1.1 enhancement are without
merit.

II.
3

Dobbs also asserts on appeal that the district court's perjury finding was
insufficient under Dunnigan to support a sentence enhancement.4 He maintains
that his testimony was generally consistent with that of other witnesses. The
"only inconsistency," he contends, was that portion of his testimony denying
that he and witness Bulger defrauded Union Camp--the very behavior for
which Dobbs was found guilty. Dobbs asserts that the district court must make
a specific finding regarding what portions of his testimony were perjurious, in
order to enhance his sentence. We disagree. While specific findings are
preferred, they are not required in these circumstances.

In upholding application of the Sec. 3C1.1 enhancement for perjury, the Court
in Dunnigan expressed a preference that a sentencing court applying the
enhancement "address each element of the alleged perjury in a separate and
clear finding." Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1117. Application of the enhancement is
permitted, however, if the sentencing court "makes a finding of an obstruction
or impediment of justice that encompasses all of the factual predicates for a
finding of perjury." Id. When sentencing Dunnigan, the sentencing court found
"that the defendant was untruthful at trial with respect to material matters in this
case. [B]y virtue of her failure to give truthful testimony on material matters
that were designed to substantially affect the outcome of the case, the court

concludes that the false testimony at trial warrants an upward adjustment...." Id.
The Supreme Court held that this general finding by the sentencing court, while
not the preferred recitation of specific instances of perjured testimony, was
sufficient to support use of the Sec. 3C1.1 enhancement because the record
amply demonstrated that Dunnigan's testimony was materially false. Id.
5

At Dunnigan's trial, five witnesses testified that the defendant was involved in
cocaine trafficking and provided specific details about cocaine transactions
involving her. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1114. Dunnigan then took the stand,
denied all involvement in any drug-related activities, and offered innocent
explanations for trips she made that the witnesses testified were made in order
to purchase cocaine. Id. In rebuttal, the government presented an additional
witness who directly contradicted Dunnigan's testimony that she had not taken
part in any cocaine transactions. Id. Against this background, the Supreme
Court upheld the sentence enhancement for attempting to obstruct justice
through perjury. Id. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1119.

In this case, Bulger, a truck scale operator for Union Camp, testified that
Dobbs, a wood broker, suggested a scheme in which Bulger would falsify truck
weights for non-existent lumber deliveries and Dobbs would present fraudulent
delivery tickets to Union Camp for payment. Bulger testified that he prepared
the false tickets while Dobbs collected the money from Union Camp and split
the money with Bulger. Dobbs then testified in contrast that he knew of no
scheme to defraud Union Camp by presenting fraudulent delivery tickets for
payment and had never suggested one to Bulger. He testified that, although he
paid his other accounts by check, he paid Bulger tens of thousands of dollars in
cash, not because he and Bulger were engaged in any illegal activity, but for
legitimate business reasons.

At the sentencing hearing, Dobbs' counsel objected to all enhancements made

to the base offense level. The judge addressed each objection separately,
beginning with the enhancement applied for more than minimal planning
involved in the scheme. While ruling on the objection to that enhancement, the
judge remarked that it was his recollection from trial that the scheme was
Dobbs' idea originally and that Dobbs had shared in the proceeds throughout
the conspiracy. Dobbs' counsel took exception to the judge characterizing
Dobbs as the instigator of the scheme and noted that only Bulger had testified
to that fact. Counsel maintained that the assertion that Dobbs instigated the
scheme "flies in the face of logic" and that "the guilty verdict was not
necessarily based on a belief of [Bulger's] testimony." Dobbs, of course, had
testified that he was not part of any criminal scheme at all; his entire defense
amounted to a blanket denial of the charges and an alternative explanation of

his behavior.
8

Immediately after defense counsel disputed the characterization of Dobbs as the

scheme instigator, the judge said, "[t]he court makes the finding and accepts
the testimony of Mr. Bulger in that regard" and overruled the objection to the
more than minimal planning enhancement. The judge next addressed the
enhancement for obstruction of justice through perjury and said, "I believe it's
well documented in the sentencing guidelines, is it not, that if the determination
is made that Mr. Dobbs perjured himself that that constitutes obstruction of
justice" (emphasis added). The determination this statement no doubt refers to
is the judge's prior determination at the sentencing hearing that Dobbs'
testimony was necessarily false because Bulger's testimony was truthful, and
Bulger's testimony directly contradicted Dobbs' testimony. The judge then
made a specific finding in that regard: "The court finds as a matter of fact that
Mr. Dobbs did indeed perjure himself, and obviously the jury believed that he
did or they would not have convicted him."

Dobbs argues that the judge's comment on the jury's belief indicates that the
obstruction enhancement was applied simply because Dobbs testified and was
found guilty, not because the judge independently determined that Dobbs
committed perjury at trial. Taken in context, however, we conclude that this
comment refutes counsel's assertion that the jury verdict did not necessarily
indicate a belief in Bulger's testimony. It does not indicate that the Sec. 3C1.1
enhancement was applied merely because Dobbs testified and was found guilty.
The judge specifically accepted Bulger's testimony that Dobbs originated the
scheme and then found that Dobbs' testimony to the contrary was perjurious.

III.
10

Particularized factual findings of instances of perjury are preferred when

applying the obstruction of justice enhancement for perjury under Sec. 3C1.1.
Dunnigan, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1117. The record in this case, however,
sufficiently supports the judge's finding that Dobbs attempted to obstruct
justice by committing perjury. Bulger's testimony and Dobbs' testimony were
fundamentally inconsistent on a material matter, the criminal activity for which
Dobbs was convicted. The judge accepted Bulger's testimony as factual and, as
required under Dunnigan, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1117, made an
independent finding that Dobbs' testimony was perjurious. While, as in
Dunnigan, a more particularized finding of perjury would have been preferable,
the finding made supports the enhancement for perjury under Sec. 3C1.1.
Accordingly, the sentence is

11

AFFIRMED.

Section 3C1.1 provides: "If the defendant willfully obstructed or impeded, or

attempted to obstruct or impede, the administration of justice during the
investigation, prosecution, or sentencing of the instant offense, increase the
offense level by 2 levels." USSG Sec. 3C1.1 (1992). The Application Notes to
Sec. 3C1.1 provide a non-exhaustive list of examples of conduct to which the
enhancement applies. The list includes "committing, suborning, or attempting to
suborn perjury." Id. at comment. (n. 3(b))

The other arguments raised by Dobbs on appeal are without merit

Perjury, for the purpose of applying Sec. 3C1.1, is defined as "giv[ing] false
testimony concerning a material matter with the willful intent to provide false
testimony, rather than as a result of confusion, mistake or faulty memory."
Dunnigan, --- U.S. at ----, 113 S.Ct. at 1116

Our review of the sentencing hearing record indicates that defense counsel did
not directly object to a lack of specific findings of perjury, making it a close
question whether this issue was preserved for appeal. Instead, counsel and the
court engaged in an abbreviated colloquy about the constitutionality of the
enhancement as applied to a defendant who testifies at trial, a point well settled
by Dunnigan. We have, however, broadly construed counsel's constitutional
objection to include the degree of specific findings of perjury required by
Dunnigan, and we address that point as if it had been properly preserved